rrow
thoroughfares and lazy waterways, the shops and the folk, all made a
kindly picture; after supper, we avoided a downpour of sleet in a cafe
with an orchestra, whose repertory of 4,000 pieces included two by
English composers, and his name was Sullivan. On our midnight way home,
we stopped at a Dutchman's bar and asked for and got a dozen hard-boiled
eggs for a second supper aboard. I was carrying a parcel in hand and
two bottles, or rather gas-cylinders, of gin in the lining of my
mackintosh when we reached the German sentry-box beside the Quay. He
puffed at his pipe as he felt the parcel and saw that all was well.

The iron in the ship began to sweat great drops, and the walls of one's
bunk glistened with damp. The glass was falling; the water of the basin
no longer lay smooth as oil but beat against the ship grudgingly. In
short, excellent Flanders weather ensued the old-established weather,
guaranteed to cure rabid individuals of war cant after one hour's trial
(unshelled) on sentry-go or at the ration dump. For the worst and even
hopeless cases, half an hour's trial on the banks of the Steenbeck was
confidently recommended--I was lucky now to have a roof leaking but
little. Phillips showed me the one dry corner in his room--a portion of
the settee about a foot square.

Hosea's wife joined us in the saloon, and not only by her genial presence
itself merited our best thanks, but also by her influence on the steward.
As if by magic, Ideal milk was added to our tinned pears (usually,
apricots); and the jam changed to strawberry.

At length the elevators ceased from troubling, and the supervisors from
dilating in _Platt Deutsch_ over the damage in the bilges. The bosun's
strangled noise timed the hoisting of the ship's boat, which had had
a busy holiday, to its normal place. The little broker made his last
appearance round the steward's precincts; and with the heaving up of the
gangway, the arrival of the tugs, the return of the wireless aerial to its
heights and the smoking funnel--it, no doubt, never looked better--we
were ready to depart.

It was twilight when our ropes fore and aft were loosed from the dolphins,
and the _Bonadventure_ slowly moved into the lock. Here while the port
authorities made a swift inspection for stowaways and concluded their
arrangements, we stopped a time, listening to the odd mixture of noise
from bleating of sheep and hooting of our whistle. Then we moved out to
sea, not without